Enjoying life's little Guilty Pleasures

Cute stuff online
It’s easy to find dismal, depressing news online. War, death, and sadness sometimes seem to fill every Web site, MSNBC.com included. But thankfully, there also exist numerous online resources filled with the perfect antidotes for a day of bad news. How about a baby panda sliding down a slide? A bucket full of puppies? A baby bunny nuzzling the mama cat that adopted it?

From Cute Overload to panda cams, if you’re in the mood for fluffy and funny, for adorable animals and bubbly babies, there are plenty of sites out there ready to force you to say “Awwww.” -Gael Fashingbauer Cooper

Gawker’s ‘Blue States Lose’

GAWKER.COM

Why waste sleep, electrolytes and drink tickets hanging with the in crowd when you can make fun of them from the comfort of your day job? Thanks to media gossip blog Gawker (and your employer’s DSL), ridiculing the cool kids has never been easier. Every Friday afternoon, just when the workday is at its dullest, Gawker posts “Blue States Lose,” a hilariously vicious fashion commentary about the photos that appear on New York and Los Angeles party photo Web sites. A pale goth guy, too old for his black mesh mini and red eyeliner, is introduced as The Other Dude from “Beetlejuice.” A scruffy indie rock boy is Jesus Christ Supertard. Unkempt hipster style has become a recurring “BSL” game: “Hipster or homeless?” (It’s often hard to tell.) Just like high school, most of us still ain’t cool enough for the guest list. But laughing at “BSL” party regulars like Princess Coldstare and Blackface Jesus (a guy who attends parties dressed exactly how he sounds) almost convinces us we don’t care. And it’s nice to have photographic proof that even the hottest parties have vomit on the bathroom floor. –Helen A.S. Popkin

TV: 500 channels of guilt Music: Bread, fantasmetal, more Movies: 'Ski School' to 'Titanic' Food: Raiding the guilty pantry Lifestyle: Hotel soap, Maxim Best real forensics shows Pairing wines with movie picks Readers: Cheetos, Pia Zadora

Hotel soaps and shampoos

MSNBC.com

The most exciting thing about staying in a hotel is discovering what soaps and shampoos await. Each hotel brings a new experience. I'm currently fond of the tall, narrow, square bottles Hampton Inn uses to package their Purity Basics products. They're fun to look at, hold and keep, although the contents don’t quite match the appearance. At Terrible's Casino in Las Vegas, the shampoo had a delightful fragrance that a sommelier would have a hard time unraveling. All Disney hotels use the same relatively inferior products, but I smile because the bar has a mold of Mickey Mouse's face. Nearly all of the fun of hotel soaps and shampoos comes not from seeing them in the bathroom and taking them home, but from falling in love with one so much that it necessitates an accidental drive-by swiping from the housekeeper’s cart in the hallway. When I'm sneaking around the hallway of a hotel that’s cost more than $150 a night, grabbing tiny bottles of mediocre shampoo I'll never use, I've found bliss. -Andy Dehnart

MORE FROM GULTY PLEASURES 2006

TV: 500 channels of Guilty Pleasures

TV: 500 channels of Guilty Pleasures Movies: 'Ski School,' 'Titanic's' real meaning, more Music: From Bryan Adams to fantasmetal Food: Raiding the Guilty Pleasure pantry Lifestyles: Hotel soap, Nancy Drew, Maxim, more The best Guilt-inducing forensics shows An aroma of Guilt: Pairing wine with movies The Guilty Pleasures you savor   Add Gulty Pleasures 2006 headlines to your news reader: